Tag: smartwatches

SmartWatch 3 from Sony to launch in India

| September 30, 2014

The brand has announced that the SmartBand Talk from its Smartwear lineup will also be released in that market.

Sony has now announced that two more of its products from within its SmartWear line, its SmartWatch 3 and its SmartBand Talk, are now going to be launched in the massive market in India.

These wearable technology gadgets can both synch with the Lifelog mobile app for health and fitness tracking.

That said, while the products are being announced for launch into the Indian marketplace, at the time that this article was written, the company had not yet revealed the prices for either its smartwatch or its fitness band. Sony has stated that the products will be reaching the store shelves in that country in December of this year.

There have been a number of improvements made to the SmartWatch 3 for the latest Sony wearables release.

Smartwatch - IndiaFor example, this device has adopted the Android Wear platform. This will allow the device to be able to anticipate the needs of the wearer, and it will organize the information stored within the device as it makes suggestions for what the wearer might need, showing it to him or her before it is even asked.

This wearable technology device will provide the wearer with appointment notifications, text messages to read, and weather updates at a rapid glance. Moreover, it can also be programmed to provide flight information or offer tips based on interests. Input into the device is rarely necessary. It functions more as an information and alert system that caters to the specific needs of the wearer.

The smartwatch can receive instructions via voice, which is the easiest way to interact with Android Wear, when taking the tiny screen size into account – the display is a mere 1.6 inches. That function is made possible through its built-in microphone. This Sony device is equipped with its own standalone mobile apps, as well and features a GPS sensor, a gyrometer, an accelerometer, and a compass. The onboard storage is a respectable 4G. It is waterproof and uses a microUSB port in order to charge its battery.

Smartwatch in the works at BlackBerry

| September 16, 2014

Though the device may be in the company’s labs, there is no guarantee that it will ever hit the market.

Not a full week after the Apple Watch was unveiled to a very mixed response from the technology world, BlackBerry has now revealed that it has been looking into its own smartwatch possibilities.

John Sims, the enterprise head at Blackberry, revealed that it has been experimenting with wearable tech.

Sims explained that it would be very interesting to make it possible to run BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on a smartwatch or other wearable technology device. That said, he also pointed out that “We’re not releasing anything at the moment, but it’s a definite area of research for us.” Much of the “internal experimentation” that is going on with this type of device, at the Canadian device maker has been centered around an effort made by Sims’s team as they look into the way that they work from the perspective of mobile app use.

The experimental smartwatch would work with a smartphone and would use a “voice interface” for communication.

Blackberry Smartwatch in the worksThis wearable technology announcement was made during a roundtable which had been assembled in order to provide an introduction of the company’s new technology assets head, Sandeep Chennakeshu. Previously a Sony-Ericsson CTO, Chennakeshu is now running the QNX OS department, the acquisition of Paratek antenna, the Certicom cryptography lab, and the platform for the Project Ion Internet of Things.

Among the assets currently under Chennakeshu’s control are some highly unique and cutting edge options. For example, the Paratek antenna technology functions by making sure that a smartphone antenna does not become “detuned” when the device is held in the user’s hand or up against his or her face. It also makes a difference in the improvement of signal strength and the device battery life.

The elliptic key cryptography from Certicom provides considerably greater efficiency than the current RSA standard, and several security certificates have been issued by BlackBerry for the Zigbee connected home standard. QNX has become the in-car system OS standard in the industry. It is clear that the company is moving toward software and services and away from a focus on devices, but at the same time, it isn’t stopping them from looking into the possibilities of a smartwatch.